Tears in the Ruins
by Tziput13
Summary: After Cortex's second defeat, Coco manages to convince Crash and Aku-Aku to let her tag along while searching for the remaining gems. Yet, the bandicoot girl may not be fully aware of the perils that await her beyond the warp room's portals. One-shot.


**.**

 **Tears in the Ruins**

Coco huffed, trying to wipe the sweat off her sticky forehead with her hand while glaring at the stone slab that she had just moved aside. Darn thing was way heavier than she expected.

And still no trace whatsoever of the _gem_ behind it!

Sighing, she looked around herself, scanning her surroundings one last time. The chamber was illuminated by four torches placed on the nearby walls, their warm flames glowing eerily while the moist walls sometimes shimmered thanks to their lights. Coco wasn't apparently disturbed that much by the scene, her biggest concern right now being the fact that even this 'treasure room', for lack of a better term, was empty.

Like the previous _seven_ ones she had inspected. And she had a hunch that even her brother did not have any more luck than her.

If she had known the search was going to be this hard, she'd have tried asking N. Brio for a gem detector of sorts. Given that he was a self-proclaimed genius, though with more than one problem as far as talking with people went, he should have been able to create something like that!

Realizing that her thoughts were distracting her, Coco shook her head and turned around. As much disappointing as it was to find nothing for the eighth time, she wasn't going to give up any time soon, especially after all the fuss she had to go through to get here in the first place.

Thus, she walked away from the room, leaving behind the opened stone chest. After following a short hallway and taking two turns, she finally left the inside of the tower to take a well-deserved breath of fresh air.

Then, she was suddenly reminded that there was a rainstorm outside as she found herself under the continuous stream of water from the clouds above, soaking her once again from head to feet.

Coco groaned, cursing herself for not bringing her laptop along. Despite what the mask thought, she knew that it could've been useful… especially since it was a water resistant one that would have been handy to place at least some type of cover over her. But alas, she had relented to the floating spirit's will, and the best she could do now was picking a compound leaf from one of the plants that grew on the ruined stone floor. Not at all enough large to fully protect her, but better than nothing.

At least, the sight in front of her was quite memorable… one of the reasons she was here in the first place, she had to admit. The ruins stretched as far as her eyes could see, and from her current position right out of the tower's main entrance she could also take note of the previous towers and lesser buildings she had visited. There were various pathways that connected the towers in various states of disarray, and by looking around, Coco concluded that there was no way she could find a fully safe path towards the nearest uncharted pinnacle. If she could have done it, she would have gone to visit the more dangerous towers by herself, actually… but unfortunately, Coco had had to accept a couple of conditions in the first place to come here.

Frowning, she started to walk down the staircase that encircled the tower, looking around for the form of a jumping bandicoot and a floating mask. As she made her way to the bottom platform, it was easy for her to locate Crash, who was actually running towards her position.

Keeping the big leaf over her head, Coco waved at her brother, who however did not wave back. Instead, Crash continued to jump and leap until he arrived right in front of Coco, and before she could say anything, he snatched her by taking hold of one of her wrists and pulling her away, making her almost lose grip on the only object that was covering her.

Ignoring her protests, Crash did not let go of her until they were under one of the keeps that seemed to connect most of the pathways. There were no walls around them, but at least they had solid stone ceiling above, and both Bandicoots didn't look like they minded. After all, Coco had more pressing matters to attend to…

Like, taking on her brother and his very worried face.

"Crash…" Coco started. "We've talked about this."

Crash's answer was making a step forward, rummaging into one of his pockets and taking out a handkerchief, offering it to her. Coco glanced at the object and concluded that, even ignoring the fact that the cloth seemed to be more wet than her, she wasn't willing to risk touching it.

"Crash," Coco said a bit more loudly. "I thought you understood what I said. I'm not a baby. I don't need you to look over me for every single thing!"

"His worries are not bad-placed, though. Do you know how bad of a cold you can get with this weather?"

Coco frowned and sent her hardest glare to the wooden mask that floated above the male bandicoot. At first, she had thought that Aku-Aku would have taken her side, back when she had first told them that she wanted to help them out, but she had soon discovered that her consideration of the tiki spirit had to be revaluated.

"What do you know about that? You're a wooden mask! And besides, Crash has already been here while looking for the crystals. I can do it as well!"

"A long time ago, I used to be a being of flesh and blood too, Coco," Aku Aku patiently explained, "and even if that wasn't the case, I've seen many living creatures in my life. And I can assure you that none of them appreciated going out in the cold night under a heavy rain. Even your brother here, who's been in quite a few places, has to stay vigilant and try not to get sick. Isn't that right?"

Aku-Aku looked at Crash, who looked back. Only after five seconds the bandicoot realized that Aku Aku was waiting for his reply and he simply grinned, making a thumbs-up sign.

Coco rolled her eyes, unamused.

"What I want to say, Coco, is that you should still be cautious. There are many dangers hidden around the ruins for you both, children, and—"

"I. Know. _That!"_ Coco suddenly interrupted. "Why aren't you two listening? I can take care of myself! I know to tell the difference between a good idea and a stupid one! Why won't you let me actually lend you an _actual_ hand, instead of leaving me behind?!"

That was, in a nutshell, what Coco had wanted to do. She had done what she could to warn her brother about Cortex, when he was unknowingly helping the villain, but when she had discovered that Crash was still busy going around the more inaccessible parts of the Wumpa islands, like the mountain ranges or the sewers in Cortex Island, in search of the gems that Dr. Brio needed to prevent Cortex from using his space station again, she had vowed to make herself useful and go on the field with her brother.

Convincing him and Aku Aku had been hard, and she had had to accept a few terms, but her patience had run thin. There was a limit to everything, after all.

Her frustration disappeared when she saw her brother's usually happy demeanour change. Maybe she had been a little too loud with her outburst, but in any case, when she saw Crash's face grow serious it was seldom sign of good news.

Before Coco could tell him she didn't mean to sound that angry, Crash put a hand on her shoulder and eyed her. He didn't need to talk: when he wanted, he only needed a facial expression to show his point.

And what Coco saw in him was not annoyance, nor disappointment or any of whatever she had imagined. No, her brother looked worried… not the classic, persistent worry from before though. He looked sincerely concerned, as if he had had a bad thought and wanted to make sure it'd never be able to happen.

As much as Coco didn't like to see him act that way, she had yet to lose her resolve. "Look, Crash…" she said, raising a hand to grab her brother's wrist, then giving a glance to the floating mask. "Aku-Aku. I'm not just trying to get some attention or be 'part of the action'. I want to _help,_ I want to do my part and be side by side with my brother if he ever needs a hand… since he's the one getting in danger all the time. And I can't do that if you two keep checking every step I make. I only ask you to let me try."

Aku-Aku hmphed, his wooden brows furrowed. He didn't look convinced, so Coco moved her eyes to her brother. "Please… I'd just like you to believe in me."

That had to do it, because Crash's serious face faltered for a second. He stepped away from her sister and scratched his head, then after ten seconds of zen-like deep thinking he shrugged.

"I guess that you have a point," Aku-Aku admitted, watching both bandicoots. "It'd be somewhat rude to control every step you make, child."

He floated out of the keep and he narrowed his eyes to look farther. "There are two towers north-east that we still have to check, right beyond the flame statues."

When he turned around, he saw both Coco and Crash looking at him questioningly. "The road ahead is not easy, but it should not be a problem for you Coco. If you and your brother feel alright about it, you could try to visit a tower each by yourself, while I look over the both of you the best I can. We'll definitely save time if we work in parallel."

Coco beamed, and before Aku-Aku knew it he was being hugged by the bandicoot. "Thank you!" she said, ignoring the fact that Aku-Aku _creaked_ under her grasps.

"Ahem…" he grumbled, making Coco let him go right away. "Woops, sorry. I got a little excited… hehe," she said. She then looked towards the towers Aku-Aku had mentioned. There were flame statues she needed to avoid and a few jumps to make, but indeed the road seemed more than viable for both. She had went through harder roads on N. Sane Island, anyway.

Then, she noticed that Crash had made no attempt to get her attention. When she whirled around, she found him looking at her with the same worried face from before, but this time Coco knew how to approach him.

"Hey, big brother," she said. She approached him and took his hand, which he accepted mechanically. "You don't have to worry about me. If I can keep your pace at home, I can definitely do the same here… if we are careful, I'm sure nothing bad is going to happen. Let's find that gem together."

Crash couldn't simply ignore Coco's smile. He often found Cortex's grins or the mocking grimaces of his goons funny, and even Aku-Aku's smile was too much weird of an image to not chuckle about it sometimes. But if there was a smile that was able to melt his heart, it was his sister's.

Eventually, Crash grinned, much to Coco's delight. The two bandicoots approached the edge of the keep, as the rain started to fall over the both of them once again. Aku-Aku was going to tell them to be mindful, but unfortunately the siblings had other ideas, and before the mask could let out a 'hey!' the bandicoots were already sprinting over the columns beyond him.

Indeed, Coco was just as much fast as her brother, when she wanted to run. Jumping from one platform to the other, she exhibited dexterity equal to Crash's, and she didn't hesitate even when the columns she had to land over started to tremble under her sneakers. At one point, Coco landed on a particularly eroded platform, and she just had time to land both feet and jump once again before the stone behind her collapsed into the shadows below. They were pretty high up over the ground, but neither Crash nor Coco looked preoccupied by the height.

Aku-Aku tried his best to keep the pace of the two, and in the end, he managed to reach the large gap between the two towers just as Crash landed at the base of the first one. He had managed to gain a few seconds on her sister, eventually, so he had all the time, while recovering his breath, to check on her.

Crash almost had a heart attack as he saw Coco jump right over the fire gust of the flame statue. But Coco had it all planned, and not even the tip of her ponytail got scorched by the moving contraption. After that, she just had to jump over last columns before she reached her own destination.

Aku-Aku was nearer to Crash at the moment, but that didn't prevent him from glancing at Coco as well from the distance. She was too far to hear with the rainstorm still going strong around them, lightnings roaring in the distance, but both him and Crash could see her waving at them cheerfully.

Aku-Aku had already imagined what Crash was thinking about the situation, and when he looked at him he immediately understood what the hero of the Wumpa Islands wanted him to do. Nodding, at least as far as a floating mask could nod, Aku-Aku moved towards Coco's tower with the intention to keep an eye on her. Better safe than sorry, after all.

The mask could already see Coco examining the tower's main entrance when he suddenly felt a movement nearby. Irked, he moved his gaze below Coco and the platform she was standing on, until Aku-Aku was looking directly at the tower's lower part.

Everything looked in order, at first sight, but something was off. He could've sworn he had felt something in there…

He floated down, descending towards the lower part of the tower while inspecting it. Eventually, Aku-Aku's eyes managed to catch a glimpse of a few stone pebbles falling off the side of the tower. The tiki mask wasn't even able to register the event that a _huge_ stone brick followed suit the pebbles.

Since the moment she had placed her feet on the platform around the tower's entrance, Coco had felt something weird, as if the floor below her was vibrating. However, the bandicoot girl had not thought much about it, thinking that in ruins as big as these and under a downpour there were a bazillion of possible reasons behind a few noises from an old building, and she had kept her focus on the entrance, which looked closed from the inside.

However, when she felt that the stone under her left foot suddenly disappeared, she immediately realized that something was wrong. Coco yelped and moved back just in time to hear Aku-Aku's cry from below. _"Child! Get out of here! The entire thing is falling down!"_

Crash heard Aku-Aku's call, and he found himself frozen in the spot. For a moment, he thought that he had heard it wrong, that he was seeing things: with the rainstorm still going strong, the scene had a dream-like appearance, after all… nightmarish, even. Yet, Aku-Aku kept shouting at her sister to escape, while he saw the tower inexorably losing parts… the same one where Coco was.

That was… _real._ And he could do nothing about it.

Coco didn't need Aku-Aku to repeat himself to start running. Her first idea was going backwards from where she had come, but she saw the remaining platforms collapse in front of her, taking the flaming statue along with them. She hastily turned around, her eyes twitching in search of an escape route. There had to be another way out on the other side, if she was fast she could go around and—

"Child!" Aku Aku's shouts made her stop her thinking. There was no time to think—she had to _move,_ and so she did. As Aku-Aku floated over the edge, he managed to see her run around the tower's wall, running fast towards the other side.

"Coco, wait! I can—" before Aku-Aku could finish the sentence, a boulder from above him ran him over, bringing him downwards and interrupting him. Coco kept running, and she didn't notice that the tower's upper part had started to disintegrate and lose dangerous rubble pieces.

Just as she was about to turn around the corner, a series of stone bricks fell on the path in front of her, destroying the entire section of the platform. Coco let out a cry of surprise, scrambling back just in time to avoid sharing the destiny of the walkway, and turned around to seek out a Plan C.

The problem was, there was _no_ Plan C. The platform's floor had disappeared behind her as well, effectively trapping her between two fires.

With both ways destroyed, Coco came to the terrifying realization that now there was truly no way out.

As her eyes looked around in a last-ditch effort to escape, she managed to see her brother moving like a lightning bolt in the distance. He was just a shadow in the rainy night, but there was no doubt about it, it was him and he was coming to help her. In her panic, Coco started to scream his name.

"Crash! Crash, help! _Crash!"_

Then, a boulder gave the finishing strike to the stone catwalk, and Coco fell into the dark depths of the ruined city.

* * *

When Coco regained control of her feelings, she didn't unfortunately find herself lying on her bed in the hut back home like her mind expected at first.

The _first_ fact she immediately understood was a constant influx of _pain_ coming from her right leg. The shock was so sudden that she instinctively tried to move, which only resulted in sending a severer jolt of pain throughout her body.

She let out a rasping whimper, as the sensation fully woke her up. When she opened her eyes, she realized a _second_ fact. Wherever she was, it was dark, _very dark,_ almost completely black, and she could not see anything. The only thing that she knew was in front of her was her right arm, and while testing it she was relieved to see that it was still working and free from any hindrance.

Then, the air started to get heavier, and Coco took note of a _third_ fact: she was stuck _._ She could barely move her head, and unlike her right arm the rest of her body was completely blocked by debris fragments, ones which most likely were also responsible for the injury on the leg that was still throbbing behind her. Even the space in front of her face was very, very limited, as a quick scan with her free hand showed. She had no idea how deep she was buried below, as there was no source of light, and even if there was some type of fracture, she knew that outside there was nothing but the night and a storm over the ruins and—

The memories returned, and the _fourth and final_ fact was made clear: what had happened before she passed out. It didn't take her too much to put two and two together.

She had been overwhelmed by the collapse of the tower she was supposed to investigate. Aku-Aku had tried to warn her only to be hit himself, and Crash had been simply helpless to do anything to stop it, too far to reach her before it was too late. She was now blocked below who knew how many meters of stone, with most of her body immobilized. She couldn't even know how much time had passed since the event itself.

Coco's breath raced as panic started to get the better of her. She once again tried to force her whole body to move, but her torso, left arm and left leg remained where they were, stuck between the parts of the stone bricks around her. As of her right leg, she received a very powerful reminder of its current state.

Coco yelped again, and the pain ended up making her eyes wet, but even so she did not give up. After breathing in silence for a minute to calm herself down, she started to move her free hand around to feel the space in front of her as much as she could. She was looking for a loose part or corner in the surface she could grab or use as a lever, and she found one right above her head. After gripping on it, Coco gritted her teeth, closed her eyes and started to push.

Nothing happened.

She frowned and pushed again with more force. She continued to do it, even when she started to exert herself to the limit. Not even the air becoming staler and staler stopped her. However, after four minutes of continuous efforts, she just had to give up. It didn't matter how much strength she put in it: it _wasn't moving_.

Coco continued to pant as her body protested due to the sudden energy loss and she let out a wheeze. Refusing to surrender, she resumed felling around with her hand in search of a second weak point. Sure, there had to be at least one she could use. It was obvious, she couldn't just be trapped here… it wasn't _likely_ to happen. It had to!

But her search proved fruitless. The handholds she managed to find were all useless to get the debris away from her body, and when she tried to move them anyway she wasn't able to do nothing but lose one of them, as a loose fragment slid down into the darkness away from her. Coco got so desperate in her search that, at one point, she growled in distress and in a fit of anger she tried to use every muscle in her body to move.

She screamed.

Afterwards, the bandicoot girl let herself rest, unable to fight back the pain and the weight pressing on her and her injured limb. A moment that, despite her hoarse breath, let her finally _think_ for a moment.

And, unluckily, the thoughts that crossed her mind were far from being pleasant.

' _I… I can't get out…'_

She could not. There was no denying it: she had tried everything, and if she kept trying she'd either pass out again or damage her leg beyond repair. She was trapped, literally buried alive.

The mask wasn't there to help her this time. And neither was her brother…

Coco's eyes started to wet again, even though this time it wasn't for the pain. It was very, very ironic, for destiny to play with her that way… she had told them more than once that she could handle it and nothing bad would have happened. That she was not a naïve child and that she could take care of herself.

But here she was. A pitiful spectacle of a girl who wanted to do something she should've thought better about doing, _crying_ while the oxygen available decreased with every passing second.

It was fully, and only, her fault…

Thus, Coco wept, in her mind telling her brother that she was sorry, telling Aku Aku that he was right, telling herself that she had been stupid and had brought this upon herself. Alone in her exclusive trap among the debris, no one was apparently able to hear her.

" _I… hear…"_

Coco abruptly stopped crying. Her ears perked, and after sniffing twice she stayed silent for a full minute.

" _Here… she… not…"_

No, she had not imagined things. There was a voice, far away… above her.

When she realized that maybe not all hope was lost for her, Coco repeated the same mistake from before and could help twitching, and her leg once again made it clear that it didn't like being moved. Coco closed her fists and stifled the yell before she could let it out. She calmed herself down, one breath after the other. She just had one shot at it before the air became too heavy for her to bear, and she had to not let it go to waste.

When she decided she was ready, she inhaled first and then let out a loud shout.

"HELP!"

Then she stayed silent, and for a few, long seconds, there was no response.

Then, it came.

" _Coco?!"_

Coco couldn't help letting out a laugh of happiness. Even though she was still stuck, in pain and moments away from losing her consciousness, she laughed.

Gah, she had never been so happy to hear the voice of the mask calling her name.

Then, she realized that there was another voice calling her name along with Aku Aku.

" _Coco!"_

If it had been a normal situation, Coco would have been surprised, almost shocked. But she had no time to remain speechless: focusing on her breath again, Coco called for help again, and after a few seconds she tried to focus on the surfaces that were pressed on her body, trying to feel possible movements coming from above.

"Coco!" Aku Aku's voice had become clearer. He was still far, but he was getting nearer. "Keep talking, child, we're digging our way towards you! We're almost there!"

Coco once again inhaled in an attempt to shout again. But her 'help' was stopped in mid-half, as her throat suddenly lost the energy needed to let out the words. She realized that she felt _tired,_ much more than she did before, and she didn't even realize that her eyes were already closing.

Coco passed her free hand over her face, and when that didn't work as she wanted she slapped herself. No, she couldn't stop now. She had to call for them. Just one more time.

Coco closed her eyes, inhaled, and then screamed.

"HELP!"

"Coco! Hold on, child!"

" _Coco!"_

Senses started to fail her. She was tired… too tired. She didn't want to keep feeling the pain from her leg. She hated the stale air and the fact she couldn't move. She would've liked to let herself take a nap for just a minute and—

' _No!'_

Coco opened her eyes wide. She could do it. They were there. Only a couple of minutes, and—

"She is near! We're here, Coco! Stay put!"

Her thoughts were interrupted by the noise of boulders crashing far from her, as if they were being flung. The weight on her injured leg lessened.

The space she was facing started to light up. She could even feel droplets of water coming through and falling over her. There was another loss of weight. More noises of boulders landing afar.

Before she knew it, one of the bigger stones that was above her _floated in the air._ Coco looked up to see the stone, along with various other boulders and bricks, hovering away with a weak golden glow around them, and then shooting away into the night.

Hands removed the remaining bricks from above her. "Crash, careful!" Aku-Aku's voice didn't sound angry, but the mask's tone was firm, enough to stop the frantic moving of the bricks. Slowly, Coco became able to move her left limbs once again. She also found herself soaked wet again, but she didn't care.

"Cautious, Crash. Her leg is injured," Aku-Aku warned, and the sentence seemed to have an effect as the last stone was the one that took the most time to be removed. When the weight started to be removed entirely from her leg, Coco thought that she was going to be relieved, but instead the pain doubled. She tried to keep her mouth shut, but a yelp escaped her lips nonetheless.

"Easy, Crash. She can't help it… No sudden moves and she'll be all right… there, you're doing good," Aku-Aku continued to instruct until Coco's leg was finally free. She was too much injured to realize when the last brick had been removed, but Coco knew that her brother had done it the moment that she was raised from her past prison and embraced by him.

She hugged back.

* * *

What happened next was all a blur to Coco. She didn't black out, but she remained in a state of half-sleep where she could hardly follow what was going on around her beyond Crash, who she was clinging on with no intention to let go. She thought she heard Aku-Aku saying something, then she felt Crash taking hold of her body and lifting her from the ground. He was definitely carrying her, but as for where they were going, she had no clue.

She couldn't keep track of the time they spent walking. When they eventually stopped, Aku-Aku spoke briefly, but afterwards she could no more hear his voice. Crash sat down quietly and didn't move, and Coco didn't protest, keeping him in her grip.

That was her last memory she could recall: therefore, it was a bit confusing when she finally woke up. Coco's eyelids opened, and she found herself looking upwards at a stone surface.

She immediately realized that she was lying on a cold floor, and that Crash was no more carrying her. Turning her head, she tried to look around and she immediately saw her brother, leaning on a nearby wall… or, better said, pile of rubble.

He had both hands covering his eyes at the moment, and it didn't take her much time to understand that he was upset. She would have liked to try and reach out to him, but she felt too tired to even think of moving for now. Thus, she simply opened her mouth and tried to speak despite her dry throat.

"C-Crash?"

Crash's reaction was so sudden that Coco would probably have jumped with a yelp if she wasn't still half-awake. Before she could realize what was going on, Crash was rushing towards at such a speed that he stumbled on a pebble, almost losing his equilibrium and falling on her.

He was, of course, worried sick. And yet, despite the seriousness of the situation, Coco couldn't help smiling weakly, despite the fact that he was now over her, staring at her face with a frown.

"Hey, big brother…" she said. Crash kept his serious expression, not satisfied with her simple greeting.

"I'm… okay. I've been better… but I'm okay, Crash," she added. Finding more words to say was surprisingly difficult, since fatigue was continuing to keep her in its grip, but Crash facial expression nonetheless relaxed a little bit, even though he kept the serious frown. He sat down beside her and took hold of one of her hands.

For a few seconds, Coco didn't try to speak anymore, content with just watching her brother by her side and squeezing his hand. Mentally she tried to recall how they had ended up in here, and her facial features hardened once she thought about her brief yet too long stay below the remains of the ruined tower.

Coco shooed the memory away from her mind and concentrated on the present time. Taking in a breath, she tried to sit up on her own, but her back started to ache as soon as she attempted moving.

"Ow… that hurt…" she muttered in annoyance. Of course, before she knew it, Crash's snout was once again over her face, looking at her with a mixture of surprise and sternness.

Coco pouted. "I am _okay,_ Crash.I just want to sit up and look around a little bit," she explained. Crash furrowed his eyebrows and he looked elsewhere for a moment, most probably thinking it over. Then, he nodded to himself and moved over, offering his strength to help her out.

With a few more groans and some determination, Coco finally managed to lift her back from her lying position thanks to Crash's aid. She felt enough confident to proceed trying to stand up, in fact, but Crash caught her attention by moving his hands in front of her face before she could do so.

"Huh?"

Before Coco could question him, Crash motioned her to look at her lower limbs. And when she looked at them, her blood ran cold.

 _That_ was something she had forgotten about, her focus all on her brother and her little endeavour. Her left leg was all right, sans for a few scrapes over her clothes that, to be precise, were scattered over her entire attire. Her _right_ one, though… the dark red splotch of colour that ran around her overalls looked grim, to say the least.

She had to fight the urge to yell and moving the injured limb in fright: she didn't know if she'd have done it if it wasn't for her brother comforting presence, who was still holding one of her hands. Coco focused on her breaths to calm herself down and tried to look at the situation from a purely analytical point of view.

Her leg… was in bad shape. But she _wasn't in pain._ Granted, it felt sore… but that was because she was now thinking about it. She hadn't even noticed before, after al.

Either her leg had gone numb, which could be good or bad news depending on its state, or maybe…

Coco looked at Crash. "Aku-Aku?"

Crash shrugged, pointing a finger at a vague direction away from them. Coco followed his sign and finally took a look at where they were: what she at first thought was one of the keeps was really a simple cover that her brother had to have found while she was out cold among the debris: two slabs of stones stuck among the rest of the rubble, one covering them from the rain and another acting as a floor. It was quite dark, but Coco's eyes were enough sensible to be able to see that they were still on the ground, far from the pathways on the higher part of the ruined city.

Her attention turned back towards her brother. He probably thought that she was wondering about where the mask was since he wasn't around, which wasn't a lie per-se, but that wasn't what she wanted to know by asking about him.

"Okay, Crash. I wanted to know… did he do something? About… this?" she said, gesturing towards her leg. Crash gave a side glance to the injury, since he seemed just as disturbed by it as her, then he nodded vigorously.

Coco sighed. Well, that was indeed a positive fact… it was the first time that Aku-Aku had used his powers to help her, but to be fair he didn't have to until today. "I imagine he doesn't want me to move it until he says otherwise. Where did he go? Did something catch his interest?"

Crash rubbed the back of his head before nodding. Coco knew him enough to imagine how the conversation had went: Aku-Aku saying something along the lines of 'I feel something', briefly telling Crash to watch over her and disappearing in the night.

The mask sometimes acted a little too mysteriously for her comfort, but she knew that Aku-Aku was far from being stupid. Whatever had taken his attention while she was out cold had to be important.

"So… we just have to wait until he's back, I guess?"

Crash gave her a thumbs-up, confirming her suspects, and Coco let out an acknowledging 'humph', shifting her gaze again towards the view outside. Crash didn't show any intention to want to show her anything else, so the siblings simply stayed where they were, sitting on the ground next to each other.

As much as Coco wanted to see the wooden mask appear and go home, something inside her was keeping her on the edge. She glanced at her injured leg once again, wondering if Aku-Aku had simply stopped the blood flow or had went ahead to try and fix it all. _'Ugh… that is going to take forever to heal in any case…'_ she thought.

She'd have to end up resorting on both his and Crash's help for a little while for sure. And that… wasn't exactly how she hoped the night would go.

Crash was so focused on the noise of the rain and the thunderous lightnings outside that Coco's voice took him aback. "I'm sorry."

He looked at her with an interrogative gaze, but Coco wasn't looking at him, her face turned towards the darkened sky. "I was such an _idiot,_ Crash… I should've listened to Aku-Aku and you. I should've realized you were just looking out for me…"

Coco's tone of voice progressively got louder. "But no, I just _had_ to ignore everything you said, thinking I could handle all of this like it was nothing. And here's the result!" She angrily gestured at her leg. "I almost _killed_ myself! Well done, Coco!"

She covered her face under her hands. "Maybe that's just what happens when I am too stupid to think over things. Gah, why do I have to be so _dumb…_ I should just stop _thinking_ at all, and—"

 _"Coco."_

Hearing Crash's voice calling her name before was weird, but at the time she was too much flustered by the near-death situation to think about it too much. But hearing it _now,_ with him right beside her, was a whole different matter.

Coco stopped talking before her eyes could start to wet and looked at her brother in befuddlement. Crash wasn't happy at all, but he wasn't angry either. He raised one of his hands, stuck out a finger and moved it left and right. As to say, 'no'.

"But—!"

Crash's placed his finger over Coco's mouth, silencing her. He continued to look at her, and she saw his serious expression falter a little, as if something else caught his attention. He, then, carefully used his hand to push away a few strands of hair out of Coco's face. Her blond ponytail was long since gone: she had been too much distracted to even realize that without it her hair had become a wet, yellow mess.

Once that was done, Crash moved aside a little and looked at her again. Satisfied, he started to clap his hands… at her.

Coco was completely lost on what her brother meant with his behaviour. Usually she would catch on whatever he wanted to communicate with little effort, but this?

"…what?"

He gestured towards her, then clapped his hands again.

"…me?"

Crash nodded, much to Coco's confusion. "But why? You've just seen it, I always mess up things up everytime I get an idea in my mind! This was all my fault, I should never have…"

Crash was once again looking at her sternly, but Coco hadn't stopped talking because of it. Her experience in understanding her brother kicked in as his message slowly became clear.

His brother's point was very simple: _her._ He didn't agree with her in the slightest about her having anything to blame herself for about what happened, neither did he like to hear her talking trash about herself that way, and all of that for one reason: her.

He was happy that she was okay, that she was still there, that she was still herself. And _nothing_ was going to change that.

Coco's lips quivered. "Crash, I-I… I don't… You…" she babbled. Crash raised an eyebrow, not immediately following his sister's sudden shift of mood, but before he could decide what to do Coco was already hugging him.

Soon, Coco couldn't help letting out a few, soft sobs, and Crash did his best to comfort her, putting an arm around her and patting her back, being careful not to make her do any unnecessary movements with the injured leg. He didn't like seeing her in this state, but that wasn't stopping him from offering his support.

They stayed like that without further words for a full two minutes before Coco finally separated herself from him. Her eyes were reddened, but it didn't look like she was crying anymore. With a sleeve of her shirt she wiped her cheeks and she sniffed.

"Thank you…" she said, her voice almost a whisper. "I… I needed that, big brother. I won't think about it that way anymore."

"You shouldn't, indeed."

Aku-Aku was floating a mere two meters away from them. When Coco and Crash saw his glowing eyes in the dark, they both got their wits scared and hugged each other with a collective, _"WHOA!"_

Aku-Aku wasn't impressed as he took refuge under the stone slab along with them. "When… how… h-have you been watching us the entire time?!" Coco stuttered.

"I've just arrived," Aku Aku answered nonchalantly, "but that is not important. I know you both well enough to at least guess what's on your mind. Coco… of all emotions you should feel right now, regret is not one of them."

"I… know," Coco said, looking down. "It was just… I'm all about having everything under control most of the time, like the functions inside the code of a program in my laptop, but whensomething… _anything_ takes my attention, I suddenly become too stubborn to see the bigger picture, and I start doing mistakes. And to make me realize that it took an entire section of an ancient city to crumble down… _over me."_

"That does not justify self-hating thoughts, Coco… and is not true, to begin with," Aku Aku replied. "Everything about what has happened out there was out of our control. Compared to the towers found around here, Crash and I have visited far more suspicious-looking places that looked like they were ready to come down below us, and the building you unfortunately walked into was no exception."

Aku-Aku closed his eyes. "If anyone is to feel guilty for what happened, it'd be me, who glossed over the hazards of this city. And for that, I am regretful."

Coco and Crash looked in puzzlement at the mask, unsure about how to reply. "We'll all have to let this experience be a lesson to us in the future…" he said gravely, before opening his eyes and looking again at Coco. "Yet, neither you nor your brother could possibly know anything about what was going to happen. Thus, you shouldn't feel at fault for this accident… but I'm sure Crash has already showed you that, isn't that so?"

Coco gave a side glance to Crash before smiling, albeit weakly. "Yes, he did," she simply confirmed.

"Good to hear. Now… I have bad news, unfortunately, Aku-Aku said solemnly. "My suspects were true, Crash. The strange sensations that I felt were indeed real disturbances, coming from a large amass of creatures that are right now moving fast towards us. The tower's fall must have made quite a loud scene which has lured them here."

Coco frowned. Brio's brainwashed cyborgs had been still trying to attack Crash once he started to help him with the Gems' search… she still found it unbelievable that his justification about the whole matter was 'I may, err, have lost control of them'. No wonder they were going after them now…

…though, Aku-Aku had not specified it was Brio's servants coming to take them out. And she didn't look forward to discovering what kind of creatures lurked in the lower part of this abandoned city.

"We can't fight them all, Crash," Aku-Aku said. "I've already spent a large amount of my powers by helping you look for Coco and healing her injury the best I could… and I'm afraid I might not be able to assist you against them for long. We _have_ to leave and return to the warp room before they get to us."

Crash nodded and stood up, but Coco wasn't fully convinced. "But Aku-Aku, what about the gem?"

"We'll get it later," the mask simply said. He would have dismissed her with a hand if he had one. "We've been through enough trouble today."

Coco couldn't help feeling a little responsible for messing up the search of the gems… if it wasn't for her presence here, maybe Crash would have already been home with the precious stone in his pockets. She looked away from Aku-Aku in shame.

Then, she felt someone placing a hand over her shoulder, and she looked up to see his brother grinning widely at her. He felt no kind of ill will towards her about it, that was a fact she couldn't deny.

He carefully took hold of her and lifted her from the ground, 'bridal-style'. Now that she was awake, Coco found the being-carried-deal a bit more awkward and embarrassing than she expected, but she knew better than to protest. She was already thankful that the tiki mask had managed to ease the pain from her injured leg, and she knew better than to test it any further with the risk of igniting the pain again.

Thus, she grabbed him and leaned on him, as Crash turned around and prepared to follow the floating mask into the rainstorm one last time. Despite the approaching danger, Coco finally felt calm… and safe.

She felt lucky to have him as a brother.

 **THE END**

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ _There are a few additional pieces of info and facts concerning Crash Bandicoot 2 in this fanfic, so if you're curious you can simply take it as my personal interpretation of the world. Writing this one was quite a challenge compared to my first story with this fandom, a bit because of the main idea, a bit because of the difference in tone and how to tackle it with these characters. I hope that it wasn't too much confusing to read, and that you've liked it._


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